Tiny package, quick power: Palestinian startup crowdfunding phone battery solution

As technology still lags behind the growing demand for longer phone battery life, two Palestinian entrepreneurs are trying to find a solution with a new portable charger.

Lama Mansour and Ismat Taffaha are crowdfunding the launch of BOLD Knot, a small, quick-charging key ring charger, through IndieGogo. They say it can store enough power to give another three hours of “talk time” or two and a half hours of internet access.

Building a hardware prototype in Palestine has however proven to be their own Gordian Knot. They started the project in May 2014 and had a prototype within a month, yet although they knew how to run a startup and source components, Palestine’s unique situation forced them offshore. Their startup BOLD Gadget is now based in Estonia, working from the Buildit Hardware Accelerator.

“When we came to printing the circuit board, we discovered that half of the components we needed were missing in Palestine, and that we cannot easily import any of them from abroad,” she told Wamda. “We were able to ship ready printed circuit boards (PCB) from China but each shipment cost a lot and took about a month to arrive due to border checks.”

There were no 3D printing nor any other prototyping facilities available and the duo found they couldn’t build any of their ideas to prove to investors or entrepreneurship support networks that they were “for real.”

“The trigger moment came after accumulations of frustration over the poor startup ecosystem in Palestine, the lack of facilities and resources, and lastly our inability to take our startup to the next stage because of all these reasons.”

Having only moved to Estonia in March this year, Mansour still seems a little shocked at the opportunities available.

Original article by Rachel Williamson

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Tiny package, quick power: Palestinian startup crowdfunding phone battery solution